The Perfume Emporium have stolen my money

legaleagle84

THIS IS A REPEAT OF A MESSAGE I POSTED LAST YEAR FOR ANYONE STRUGGLING TO RECOVER THEIR MONEY FROM THE CONMAN CHRIS COLLINGS AND HIS "PERFUME EMPORIM":

As a barrister, Chris picked the wrong person to attempt to defraud. I issued a quick court claim against him and the funds for my refund have just cleared in my account. Below are the steps I followed. Simply do likewise and you too will receive your money back. Forget email pleading - Chris will bombard you with excuses about Royal Mail and delays in processing refunds. IGNORE EVERYTHING HE SAYS. IT IS SIMPLY LIES AIMED AT DELAYING YOUR REFUND. Patiently wait 30 days from your order and then send the following email to Chris, inserting the details in the square brackets:

---

Dear Chris

On [DATE] I placed my order with The Perfume Emporium, paying £X for “[PERFUME]”. This should have arrived at my dispatch address by [30 PLUS ONE DAYS FROM DATE OF ORDER] in accordance with section 19(1) The Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Regulations 2000, which states:


19.—(1) Unless the parties agree otherwise, the supplier shall perform the contract within a maximum of 30 days beginning with the day after the day the consumer sent his order to the supplier.


Having failed to perform the contract by [30 days plus one following the placing of my order] , you are now required to reimburse me in full pursuant to section 19(4) of the Regulations:


(4) The supplier shall make the reimbursement referred to in paragraph (2)(b) as soon as possible and in any event within a period of 30 days beginning with the day after the day on which the period for performance expired.


The relevant date for reimbursement under the legislation is therefore [62 DAYS AFTER DATE OF ORDER]. If the full sum is not paid by this date, I shall issue a claim against you and you will be required to pay the cost of issue of £25, increasing the figure owing to £[money owed plus £25].

Regards etc

---

If the refund has not arrived by that date, issue a county court claim online against "Chris Collings T/A The Perfume Emporium". The weblink is ww.moneyclaim.gov.uk. It will cost £25 to make a claim, but this is added to the amount due and Chris is required by law to pay it. Simply follow the on screen instructions. The address is found on the Perfume Emporium Website:

When you are prompted for the Particulars of Claim, feel free to use the below template, inserting the details in square brackets as appropriate (leave the round brackets in place):

PARTICULARS OF CLAIM


1. The Defendant is a sole trader engaged in the sale of perfumes. On [DATE OF ORDER], by electronic agreement on the Defendant's website the Defendant agreed to sell and deliver to the Claimant [QUANTITY] bottle(s) of [DESCRIPTION OF FRAGRANCE] (the Perfume) for the price of £X.


2. It was an implied term of the contract that the Perfume would be delivered to the
Claimant's home address by [30 DAYS PLUS 1 FROM THE DATE OF ORDER].


3. On [DATE OF ORDER] the Claimant paid £X to the Defendant.


4. In breach of the contract, the Defendant has failed to supply the Perfume.


5. Because of the matters set out above the consideration for the payment of £X has
wholly failed.


AND the Claimant claims

(1) £X


There is a character limit on the Particulars of Claim and so you may need to amend the formatting of the above template (delete spaces and line breaks) in order to stay within the limit. There is an option to reserve the right to claim interest, but on most orders this will be a matter of pence and calculating it is frankly more hassle than it's worth, so I did not bother with this.

Email Chris with the claim reference number as soon as you have issued it. Chris has 14 days to respond to the claim, and 28 days in which to defend it. He will in all likelihood put a cheque in the post on the day the claim is served (usually two working days from the date of issue). If he does not respond within 14 days, you can enter judgment in default, details of which are explained on the MoneyClaim website.

Follow the above steps and you should get your money back. Feel free to spread the word and post this guide on other forums. The more people getting their money back from this conman, the faster the wheels will fall off his nasty little scam.

dancerman

Unfortunately I too have fallen foul of this business.
My story is exactly the same as so many above - Royal mail have lost it- must wait 15 days - replacement sent - not received- refund promised - not received - What a nonsense!! Now in the hands of Visa.

KJ5858

Mine is also in the hands of VISA, or will be as soon as the 30 days are up. I am just about to phone Trading Standards - why is this person still trading - it's a joke! Close him down NOW!

daninlancs

I ordered 20th Feb. Got all the same excuses. Eventually got a refund on 6th July so don't give up. I did start procedings with credit card company but after informing PE of this they refunded my credit card. My amount was just under £50. So annoying though that this order was for a present. It shouldn't be allowed!

MamaLungle

Cant believe I've been scammed too, how I wish I'd googled the reviews before I bought. Hey ho, what can you do but make sure you tell anyone who will listen what a con artist this Chris guy is at the perfumeemporium.co.uk is. I honestly dont know how people like him sleep at night. What a total scumbag...... I actually felt quite sick reading through all the posts on this forum and seeing the same twaddle that he'd emailed me sent to so many other people. I just dont understand how he can get away with it when its obvious that so many people and organisations are on to him?!

Bayesian_Roller

Same story with me - ordered off what looked like a legitimate looking site only to get a bunch of apologetic emails. Apparently, Royal Mail has a personal vendetta against our Chris Collings.

Has anyone had any further luck with refunds and what did you have to do to get them - chargeback, county court? Has anyone written to Guardian Money yet? It may be useful, since they tend to take up these cases.

Internet_Shopping_Fan

Yet Another one!

The same thing has happened to me - as others have said, I am annoyed with myself for not checking the reviews! We have now asked for a refund after not receiving the first product ordered in June (Royal Mail have lost it, wait 15 days etc) asking for a replacement which didn't arrive after 2 weeks at which point we found this forum and upon realising we'd joined a number of others being given the same e-mails, asked him for a refund and contacted our credit card company (and told him we have done this - they will chase when 30 days is up from the refund request which as we were naively waiting for the replacement wasn't until last week). He has said we'll receive a refund in line with his terms and conditions, so watch this space. Not sure if that will include the postage paid back in June too.... How can he still be going?!! If I hadn't found this forum, I'd still be waiting as he comes across as friendly and helpful! Really disappointed to have been caught like this.

grahambonner1951

Persevere - I was scammed as everyone else - all the same excuses via emails. Found this site and followed legaleagles advice - sent the email as he suggested followed by other mails where I threatened to inform police/trading standards/watchdog/local papers. Told him he would be sensible to refund me rather than have to pay refund plus £25 if we went the full county court route (which I told him I was fully prepared to do). Received mail from Chris 2 days ago saying I would get full refund within his terms and conditions and lo and behold my credit card was today credited with a full refund. My initial order was placed on July 6th.

stevieb1973

Looks like Chris has hooked another one!!!!!
I bought 2 last month totalling just under £70, and supposidly he has sent me a replacement (although be it last Tuesday)
Having now read these threads I feel physically sick that someone has done this to me. I have sent him an e-mail asking him to refund within 5 - 7 days or I will take it higher.
Lets hope im one of the lucky ones on here that gets that refund!

Old_Pete

If anyone is interested, there are about another 30 complaints about The Perfume Emporium and Collings at CanYouTrustThem.com. This is where I found the information about his previous web host, Hostgator.com.

I received an email today saying that a cheque for my refund will be posted today & am keeping my fingers crossed.